Fedora Study Seeks Feedback

Two U.S. business school researchers are studying the Fedora project. The survey ends April 16

On the Fedora Announce mailing list, community architect Greg DeKoenigsberg called upon last-minute participation in an online survey that addresses users that have had anything to do with the Fedora project. The survey concludes later this week, April 16. DeKoenigsberg calls it a "final push." The survey is officially on Fedora's projectassessment.org page.

Whoever finds the survey form applicable (at least a user) can contribute to the scientific study.

The online survey already had an interview round with about 20 project members. The interviews resulted in three main themes relevant to the project, explained DeKoenigsberg: Values, Activities and Tools. Values addresses the question, "to what extent is 'open source' relevant?" Activities addresses the question, "to what extent is testing a collaborative activity?" Tools addresses "to what extent is Planet or Koji used across the Fedora project?"

"This study will help us understand what makes the Fedora community tick. I think it speaks for our success that the academic community is putting us under the microscope," said DeKoenigsberg. Conductors of the survey thank all participants: "Your response to this survey will be extremely valuable for studying the Fedora Project."

The study is in the hands of Tony O'Driscoll and Jonathon N. Cummings, both professors at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. It's still unclear whether the study is funded by Red Hat. In any case, Red Hat in Raleigh and Duke University in Durham are practically neighbors in North Carolina.

The results of a survey that asked 955 organizations in the public sector from 13 EU countries about their affinity to Open Source software were recently released. At the same time, the survey investigated six Open Source development projects maintained by public authorities.